User blog:TSRITW/Why there is no such thing as an overused word
You’ve heard of “overused words”. You know, like “good”, “bad”, “happy”, “sad”, and other words that have been used way too frequently. But wait... how frequently is “too frequently”? 'All Words Are Equal' You see how I used the word “are” there? “Are” is a commonly used word. Is “are” an “overused” word? No! Then why are some other commonly used word considered “overused”? In fact, there will be one day where “overused” becomes overused. And that is autological. Here are some other commonly used words that aren’t considered “overused”: *a *an *the Why aren’t they considered “overused”? Because they’re articles! Articles are some of the most common types of words out there. In fact, “the” is the MOST common word! So why don’t we say “the” is “overused”? Here are some more sight words: *be *is *am *are *was *were *been *have *has *had *do *does *did *done You see? There are “overused” words that are just really common. Heck, take the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E. Do those letters get a bad rep? Do we rejoice when we see a word that has a rarer letter, like J, K, Q, X, or Z? Of course not! Why would we? 'Word Label Zig-Zags' Let’s say there are two words, one is “overused” (let’s use “good”), and one is “underused” (let’s use “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”). People start to learn that the “overused” word is “overused”, and they try to avoid them. Even worse, they could NOT use them entirely! Meanwhile, the “underused” word gets more attention, and more and more people are using it. So what now? Has the “overused” word become “underused”? And has the “underused” word become “overused”? Eventually, people learn that the “underused” word has become “overused”, and thus, they stopped using them, and the “overused” word that is now “underused” is “overused” again. And the cycle continues forever... That, my friend, is a Word Label Zig-Zag. Eventually it’s become a teeter-totter of word usage. It also has larger cycles, like Word Label Triangles, where THREE words are used, and they keep switching among the three. Now, imagine a world where when a word receives a label, it’s stuck with it forever. That could lead to... 'The Label Virus' A writer wants to use a word, but that word has become overused (let’s use “bad” for this example). To avoid that “overused” word, he has switched to another word that has a similar meaning (like “awful”). After some time, the writer has realized that THAT word has become “overused”. Wanting to avoid the Word Label Zig-Zag, and keeping labels for eternity, he used a less common word (like “appalling”). He keeps doing that until eventually he ran out of words to describe something that’s “not good” (he also thinks that “good” is “overused” and doesn’t want to use negatives). Word labels that are permanent are like measles: highly contagious, hard to cure, and caused by ignorance (For the last time, vaccines do NOT cause autism!!!). The vaccination for word labels? Equality. Just like what I said in the first section, all words are equal. Word labels is like racism, but with words. WORDISM. Words have feelings too, and you just don’t know about it. Also, if you didn’t just skip to the end, do you think that “word” doesn’t sound, or even LOOK like a word anymore? Has the word “word” become “overused”? No! It’s just a phenomenon known as semantic satiation. 'Conclusion' When a word is “overused”, that label does not last long if we no longer use it. Just like humans, all words are equal, and if they were to have their version of Total Drama Island, they would need words that have significant MEANINGS, not labels. We should not discriminate words just because they are commonly used. From now on, we shall not use the word “overused” to describe words, and rather “positive”, “negative”, “neutral”, “common”, “uncommon”, and “rare”, because words are like trading cards, and some cards are rarer than others. We shouldn’t judge words based on their rarity. Also, I was not talking about Rarity from My Little Pony. In short, there is no such thing as an overused word. And there is no such thing as a Horrible Reception Wiki. And just like Fight Club, the first and second rules of them is not talking about them. Period. Or, to those non-Americans out there, full stop. 'Fun(?) Challenges!' The next time you read a passage, try counting the number of common words in it. Also try counting the number of words that have E’s in them. Category:Blog posts